


Stand And Deliver!

by Written_On_The_Trees



Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [12]
Category: Palaye Royale (Band), Yungblud (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Regency, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Happy Ending, Highwaymen, October Prompt Challenge, Prompt Fic, Rescue, Running Away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Written_On_The_Trees/pseuds/Written_On_The_Trees
Summary: Day 12 of my 31 October Writing Prompts. Prompt:Royalty.Harriet may not want to get married to Viscount Remington Leith Kropp, but she doesn't have a choice...at least not until a handsome highwayman offers her one.
Relationships: Dominic Harrison | Yungblud/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949572
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Stand And Deliver!

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing this while unashamedly listening to [Adam & The Ants - Stand And Deliver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2a6l6wM2k) \- which has actually got nothing to do with this fic other than the shared title, but I fully reccomend watching, because it's so bad it's absolutely amazing.

“Please, sit up straight Harriet. You’ll crease your dress.”

Harriet sat up straight, making sure to smooth out any small creases that may have started forming in the white fabric of her dress: “Sorry, mother.”

“And remember to speak clearly. The Countess of Huntingdon will not marry her son, even her second son, to a simpleton.”

“Of course not, mother.” Harriet replied, making sure to speak up and enunciate more clearly this time.

Her mother nodded, even through she was frowning slightly: “And for the sake of all that is holy, please remember only to speak when you’re spoken to. The last thing this family needs is for you to ruin this match with your inane chatter.”

“Yes, mother.”

Satisfied - for now - Harriet's mother sat back in her seat, and returned to silently watching the world go by outside the window. Harriet looked out of her own window, doing the same. There wasn’t much else to do; the journey to Hitchingbrooke House, the home of the Countess of Huntingdon and her three sons, had been long, and even if Harriet did want to speak to her mother, by now both of them were tired and ready to be out of this carriage. Even the dreaded prospect of meeting her betrothed was becoming less and less unenticing the longer Harriet spent in the carriage.

That being said…it was still very much a dreaded prospect.

Harriet had heard stories about the middle Viscount Kropp. By all accounts he was a charming young man, not too much older than herself, and apparently very good looking to boot. But that was where the positive traits ended. According to anyone who had met Viscount Remington Leith Kropp knew he was a gambler, a womanizer, a drinker, a fighter, and an opium user. His title was the only thing that had kept him out of trouble. A typical night started with him drinking, attending the gentleman’s clubs of Covent Garden to play cards and games of chance and drink more, before finding one of the ladies of ill-repute at the clubs to…spend time with. The he’d either fornicate, drink, or smoke himself into a stupor, before waking up the next day to do it all again.

Frankly, he was not a desirable match. He wasn’t even the firstborn son - it was his older brother Sebastian who would inherit the title, not Remington…but Harriet’s family was penniless, and the Kropps were not. Her mother was desperate for Harriet to make this match, so that she could keep the family afloat long enough to make even better matches for Harriet’s sisters.

As unpleasant as it was, Harriet knew her own aspirations held no importance. Maybe she was far more interested in the baker’s boy from the village, the one with the bright hazel eyes that shone as he smiled at her when he thought she didn’t see him in the kitchen. Maybe it was far more charming to see him blush and duck his head when she was the one to pay him for bringing bread than it was to see Remington flirt with anything with breasts and a pulse. And maybe Harriet would much rather get to know someone who had told her friends that he liked to hear her talk about the different uses of the kitchen plants with the cooks than someone who only cared about the plants that could intoxicate them…but it didn’t matter. None of it did.

It was an unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless. Though Harriet may have no desire to marry Remington, she did want to see her sisters marry well - if only they could avoid men like Remington. If that meant marrying for wealth…then that meant marrying for wealth. Even if there were other ways Harriet could think of to make money that she would rather make work.

_Like literally any other way._

Sighing as the house came into view, Harriet sighed internally. She once again smoothed out the skirts of her dress, even though the periwinkle blue muslin was as if it was straight out of the wardrobe. She rearranged her shawl around her shoulders, and straightened her long white gloves. Her mother watched on approvingly, only intervening to reach up and adjust the gold locket around her neck, so that it hung in the center of her collarbones.

And then they were outside the house.

A butler helped Harriet out of the carriage after her mother, and bowed as he gestured towards the steps up to the front door, where Stephanie Kropp was waiting with her three sons.

Harriet followed her mother towards the other family, making sure to keep her posture straight but her eyes directed demurely down at the floor. She greeted Stephanie and her sons, before allowing her mother to do the rest of the talking. As her mother had said, she was to speak only when spoken to, and apparently neither Remington nor his mother had anything to say to her.

Instead, they took them on a tour of the grounds. Harriet wasn’t best pleased to be back in a carriage, even if it was a much nicer one than her family’s, but she accepted the youngest brother’s help into her seat next to Remington, while their mothers took the carriage in front.

“So, you’re the girl mother has chosen for me.” Remington rolled his eyes disdainfully: “A little plain, aren’t you.”

Harriet certainly didn’t think so, but her mother would have her head if she alienated her potential suitor: “I’m sorry to hear you think so, sir.”

The eldest brother laughed coldly: “You’re sorry to hear he thinks you’re unattractive? How desperate are you to get married?”

“Have you seen her face?” Remington snickered: “It’s not like she’ll have any other prospects lined up.”

“Maybe she has some hidden talents.” the third brother laughed, leering at Harriet: “Are you hiding anything under that cheap dress, Lady Harriet?”

Despite wanting to bristle at the derisive way he said her title, the deliberate attempt to remind her she was several ranks below them in the social hierarchy, Harriet continued to keep her cool: “”

“Still _so_ prim and proper.” Sebastian laughed mockingly.

“You _must_ be desperate.” Emerson Kropp laughed: “I wonder what we could use that desperation to make her do…”

His hand dropped to his crotch suggestively, and Harriet couldn’t help herself - she looked the youngest Kropp brother straight in the eye to say with utter sincerity: “Not so desperate that I would touch you with a ten-foot pole.”

The brothers’ laughter stopped, with Emerson’s face flushing with embarrassment, even as Remington’s face with tight with anger.

At this point, Harriet didn’t much care. She would, once she had calmed down, but in this moment she was so incensed that the brothers would trap her in this carriage with them just to mock and insult her. She continued to stare daggers at Emerson, and Remington when he opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, the sound of the forest outside was split by a gunshot.

The carriage halted sharply, as did the carriage containing their mothers behind them, but that didn’t do anything to relax Harriet. She was smart enough to know what a single gunshot going off in the middle of the forest meant - and sure enough, two seconds later, a clear voice rang out through the trees:

_“Stand and deliver!”_

A highwayman.

If there were any small mercies in this world, Harriet could at least take some vindictive pleasure in knowing the Kropps had more to lose than she or her mother did. It was thinnest of silver linings, but after the conversation she’d just had, it was a silver lining nonetheless.

A face appeared at the carriage window, covered by a black mask and a kerchief that hid his identity completely…apart from his eyes: “Well, well, well…I was going to say your money or your life, but after seeing your lovely companion, I think I’ve changed my mind.”

Clearly still smarting from her insult, Emerson smiled cruelly at Harriet before turning to the highwayman: “Take her.”

“Not without the lady’s permission.” the highwayman insisted, sounding incensed: “What kind of a gentleman do you take me for?”

“Believe me, these three know nothing of gentlemen.” Harriet rolled her eyes, before reaching for the carriage door. Hazel eyes glinted at her from behind the mask, and the kerchief twitched upwards as if the face underneath was smiling: “I accept your offer.”

The brothers protested, but Harriet ignored them, and allowed the highwayman pulled her up behind him onto the horse. Her mother’s loud protests were not far behind the Kropp brothers’, but Harriet paid them no mind either.

She’d do anything to get away from the Kropp brothers – even piss her mother off.

“So, what do I call you, other than baker’s boy?” she asked casually as they galloped away through the trees - working hard to keep her smile out of her voice.

Her rescuer tensed, but relaxed fairly quickly: “You know who I am?”

“Do you honestly think I would get on a horse with any old highwayman?” Harriet teased: “Those three were bad, but not _that_ bad. I only went with you because you’re you.”

The baker’s boy laughed: “I’m Dominic, Lady Harriet, but my friends call me Dom.”

“Well Dom, my friends call me Hattie. Pleased to finally make your acquaintance officially.”

“Pleased to meet you too, Hattie.” Dom replied, his smile evident in his voice: “Pleased to meet you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Royalty...regency...it's all the same, right?
> 
> _(I know it's not, but I really liked this idea, so let me pretend it is.)_
> 
> Also, I'm sorry I made Palaye Royale arseholes in this, but I needed some villains, and they're already a family, so it just fit _(plus...you know Royale, royalty...you can see why they came to mind)_. I hope, despite this, people enjoyed this story - especially as I got closer to keeping it under 1500 words this time 🤣


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